When I heard Bolin shouting eagerly that we'd reached the city, I hurried to join them as we began to approach the outer wall of Ba Sing Se. "I wonder how many air benders are down there." Korra wondered as I leaned over the side.
"I wonder where Princess Azula tried to drill through the outer wall and was sabotaged by Aang, Toph, Katara and Sokka!" I grinned, looking down at the wall like I was hoping to see a landmark or something. "Isn't this great? We're finally seeing more of the world Korra, we're a long way from the polar ice caps now." She smiled at me as I beamed, pushing back my hair from the wind as she placed her hand on my shoulder and the two of us looked out. The lower ring wasn't exactly a haven, and it was rather disappointing to see as it was dingy, run down and looked exceedingly poor.
"Ugh. The lower ring looks terrible." All of us were soon holding or covering our noses as the polluted fumes rose up even to where we were high above the city.
"Yeah, I can smell it from here. No wonder dad left." Bolin practically gagged at the smell. It was way better in the middle ring, as for one there wasn't any smell and it looked like a normal city, with markets, street food and plenty of people. "Hello, middle ring!"
"I don't get it, I thought Ba Sing Se was supposed to be the cultural pride of the Earth Kingdom. King Kuei made a whole bunch of reforms whilst he was alive, particularly focusing on the lower ring to make improvements to the city. How can it look so terrible?" I frowned in confusion as we passed over the middle ring and moved towards the upper ring.
"Maybe things went downhill after the king died and his daughter inherited the throne." Korra suggested as we passed over the final wall. "Maybe Tenzin will know what she's like."
"She can't be all that great if she's left the lower ring to rot. Maybe you should bring it up with her, make a formal Avatar complaint." I suggested to her, the others arriving to take a look at the city down below, Kai in particular appreciating the view. We were guided in to land in a large, open space, allowing us to alight freely where we were met by some kind of court official who bowed to Korra and Tenzin in respect.
"Avatar Korra, Master Tenzin, it is a pleasure to welcome you and your party to the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se. I'm Grand Secretariat Gun." That's a big fancy name for such a little guy, and I had no clue what it meant.
"Thank you." Korra bowed in return just as Bolin walked up with Pabu, taking in a deep gulp of the fresh air around us and enjoying the scent of the upper ring, though Gun's face dropped in alarm as I brought Naga off the airship, patting her neck and scratching her ears as her tail wagged excitedly, Oogie also floating off from the deck to land.
"Oh, no. The Queen hates animals. We've got to get them out of sight!" What kind of person hates animals? This queen didn't sound like the kind of person people wanted to meet.
"Well, I can just stash Pabu in my shirt." Bolin offered, proceeding to show Gun how it was done before he jerked his head at Naga and Oogie. "These two are gonna be a little tougher."
"Come with me, hurry. I'll take you to your quarters." Clicking my tongue to get Naga to follow me, she trailed along behind me as we passed a gorgeous lotus pond with fish swimming under the water. Naga jumped forwards, intending to splash in the water but I quickly grabbed hold of her harness and pulled with all my might, telling her no. "Now, when you meet the Queen, make sure you bow low enough. That's very important, and don't look her in the eye, she can't stand that. If any food is served, don't eat before she eats. Oh, actually, I have to taste her food first, then she eats, then you can eat. Better yet, just don't eat." There were that many rules to meeting just one dignitary? I think I'll just hang out at our residence rather than go meet this queen.
"Seems like an awful lot of rules."
"Oh, you have no idea, and I'm the one who gets in trouble when people don't follow them." Gun informed us all before pleading rather pathetically, like he was begging for his life. "So please, please, for my sake, just try not to upset Her Majesty." Well, I can see this going down well. Our temporary lodgings were admittedly very nice, more luxurious than anything I'd ever experienced before. "Here we are. Now, go in and make yourselves comfortable, and keep those animals out of sight in the backyard!" Gun warned sternly, pointing at me and Bolin as I had almost let Naga into the house. She lowered her head and whimpered sadly as I rubbed her head. "Avatar Korra, if you'd follow me, we don't want to keep Her Majesty waiting."
"Sorry girl, but rules are rules. Come on, let's see what the backyard is like for you and Oogie." I nudged her, getting her and Oogie to come with me. "See? Spacious and plenty of sunny spots if you want warmth, shade if you want cool, there's fresh water and I'm sure we can get you food from somewhere." I said to her as I felt something jump up onto my skirt before climbing up my back to come up onto my shoulder. "Oh hi Pabu, you taking a look too?" He squeaked at me, curiously looking around before jumping off again and investigating some of the trees to find himself a spot to nap. Making sure that Oogie and Naga were settled, I headed back inside to find Tenzin sitting in the front room of the residence, all of us waiting for Korra to come back until Jinora made an excellent point.
"Hey, has anyone seen Kai?"
"Kai?"
"Kai! Little bro?" Tenzin and Bolin started calling out as the rest of us searched, looking for our little scamp but found him nowhere around.
"He's not over here."
"I don't think I've seen him since we landed." Asami said to me with a look as I gripped a hand through my hair.
"Ah jeez that's just perfect! We brought a thief right into the upper ring of Ba Sing Se were all the rich people live. Should have seen that one coming."
"I knew that kid was no good. He was just waiting for an opportunity to run away again." Mako agreed as we all gathered together, trying to figure out what to do. I voted we just left him to it, he'd get caught eventually and then he'd be sorry, but Jinora argued that we had to find him. "What's the point? He obviously doesn't care about us."
"But he's my new little brother. He's probably lost and scared." Bolin worried so I sighed and patted his shoulder to console him with a dry look. Sometimes, Bolin was just too sweet for his own good.
"He is just a little boy, and he's our responsibility. Besides, he's the only air bender we've recruited so far. We can't lose him." Tenzin reasoned, persuading Mako to at least go looking for him.
"Fine. Bolin and I will find him."
"I'll go to." I offered, figuring it would be faster with more eyes searching for him. Besides, sitting in the residence waiting around sounded boring, at least this way I got to explore. First off we backtracked the way we came, thinking we might come across Kai somewhere nearby as Bolin desperately searched even in places Kai was least likely to be.
"Kai! Did you go fishing?" Leaning over the lotus pond railings, Bolin looked down into the water before dashing off, looking left and right, searching hedges and under bridges. "You under the bridge?"
"We're not playing hide and seek Bolin. Face it, Kai ran off." I said to him as gently as I could but Bolin still got upset and teary, turning around and sobbing at me at the thought of Kai leaving on purpose. Instantly I panicked, hating it when Bolin cried so I rushed to try and fix it. "I mean…he ran off to go exploring! Yeah, maybe he just got lost and he's looking for us too. Don't cry, there there." Sniffing at me, Bolin nodded his head.
"Yeah, that's got to be it." Mako had been looking elsewhere all the while so I elbowed him, making him help me console his brother about Kai. We carried on searching, and it was Mako who eventually spotted him.
"Kai!" Freezing up when he heard us coming for him, Kai gave a mock salute before bolting, forcing the three of us to chase after him. "Get back here!" That kid sure can run fast.
"Kai, it's us! Mako, Kanna and Bolin! Your new family!" Bolin yelled to him as we ran, racing down the street and following him down an alley as I quipped at Bolin.
"I don't think Kai is as excited about his new family as you are Bolin." The kid crossed a busy street, sliding under a carriage like it was nothing and Mako did this crazy stunt by running up the side of a building and leaping over that same carriage, making my jaw drop. Oh hell no, there's no way I'm attempting that. Bolin and I crossed a little less elegantly, Bolin stumbling as he apologised for getting in the way, avoiding being run over as he held onto my hand to pull me along. "Oh for crying out loud! Everybody MOVE!" Giving them fair warning I water bended an ice track across the road and jumped on it, pulling Bolin with me as we skated and I weaved us in and out of the traffic before hopping off facing the alley Mako and Kai had run down.
"That was awesome!" Bolin breathed as I retrieved the ice from the road, pulling it back into the water pouch as it melted into water.
"Glad you had fun, now let's go!" We chased Kai all the way to the train station but we lost him in the crowd, forcing us to look for him, boarding a train to check it out before it could leave until he just so happened to bump into Mako so I yelled and pointed quickly. "Mako!" Kai jumped to hold up his hands in surrender as Bolin, Mako and I faced him, all of us sweaty and out of breath.
"What are you doing running around robbing people?"
"I was just practicing my air bending." Kai insisted firmly, trying to act all innocent.
"Yeah, right. Let's go. You're in big trouble." Reaching out Mako tried to put his hand on Kai's shoulder in order to drag him away but before he could make contact, Kai ducked down and Mako only managed to grab hold of Kai's outer coat which Kai then pulled back and blasted us with a force of air which knocked the two brothers against me, making me yelp as we all fell backwards and they both crushed me underneath them.
"Get off me! You guys are so heavy!" Bolin apologised quickly, Mako lunging forwards after Kai but the train doors shut and we started to leave the station as I rubbed my head, everything aching from where I'd been smushed. Helping me back onto my feet, Bolin dusted me down, asking if I was alright so I waved him off, assuring him I was fine as Mako folded his arms unhappily and glared at Bolin.
"Your little brother, huh?"
"Yeah, just lovable little scamp, isn't he?" Bolin laughed nervously as Mako and I frowned at him, both of us seriously pissed that we'd got our butts kicked by just some kid.
"Adorable." I drawled as Mako sighed.
"Reminds me of my little brother." The train carriage moved out of the station and before we knew it, we were on an express line all the way back to the lower ring, meaning that we were stuck riding the train all the way. "I knew we couldn't trust that kid! We should have just let the sheriff take him back then and we wouldn't be sitting her dealing with the problem." Mako complained as we found somewhere to sit down.
"Quit your bellyaching, there's nothing we can do about it now. Uncle Tenzin will know something's up sooner or later when we don't come back. We'll just sit tight then catch a train back once we reach the station." I said to him as I leaned back and stretched out, knowing there was nothing we could do but just go with the flow.
"Exactly! Let's just enjoy the ride and check out the view." Bolin agreed, so that's what we did, though there was only so much scenery I could take before it just got boring.
